Dive Brief:
- A new Tennessee law will allow trained school staff members to administer insulin shots to students.
- Tennessee is now one of 20 states, including the District of Columbia, that has bills allowing trained staff members to give the shots.
- According to the American Diabetes Association, Tennessee has over 200,000 Americans under the age of 20 diagnosed with diabetes.
Dive Insight:
Ensuring educators have the option and ability to give insulin shots, if properly trained, is becoming a necessity. As more schools face budget cuts, school nurses are unfortunately some of the first things to go. Currently in the U.S., 45% of K-12 schools have full-time nurses, 30% have a part-time nurse, and 25% have no nurse at all. Educators versed in medical procedures could easily be the difference between life and death.
